PhD Course on Global Disaster Studies: Past, Present and Future

University of Copenhagen

The PhD School and Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research invite all PhD students and early career researchers within the disciplines of jurisprudence and social science to a course on globe disaster studies.

The purpose of this course is to provide participants with an overview of the ways in which disaster studies have evolved over the past 60 years under four key themes: Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Vulnerability; Disaster Risk Governance; Gender, Intersectionality and Diveristy in Disasters; and Disaster Law and Policy. The course will trace key conceptual and theoretical developments throughout disaster literature in these thematic areas, focusing on both western scholarship and also key movements and texts from other regions around the globe. Furthermore, participants will be able to introduce their own discipline specific understandings of disaster studies through a round of paper presentations and feedback. The course will conclude with an open seminar for students and interested researchers on the potential futures of disaster studies.

Participants who have met the learning objectives of the course will be able to:

Identify and understand key thematic shifts in disaster studies over the past 60 years.

Discuss future projections for disaster studies.

Put into perspective multidisciplinary insights and approaches from their own research on disasters.

Course information

Time

Venue

ECTS

Course ECTS requirements

Activity

Short description of activity

Required readings

Participants will be asked to familiarize themselves with selected readings under each of the four themes discussed in the course.

Written assignments

Participants must prepare a draft paper of 10-15 pages to be presented and worked on during days 1 and 2 of the course. The paper is expected to be related to the participants PhD thesis (e.g. as a chapter/article etc), and should also relate in some ways to the general topics and scope of the course (disaster studies). The paper is expected in a draft form in order to have peer feedback and expert advice during the PhD course. Papers must be submitted to the course organizer no later than 22 November.